Missing Pages
by Silver Uranium
Summary: Five pages which should never have come to light. The one torn between the two. For it is said, you can't hide secrets and repressed emotions forever.  Songfic with the song in chapter 3
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Okay, um...Hello (FF dot net) world, this is Silver Uranium. This little piece here is my first fanfic in approximately eighteen months since I last posted something on FF dot net (back then as Vatican Illuminatus 503), so I may (with 70% likelihood) have become a little rusty in writing. Feel free to correct any errors I might have missed. Thank you.

**DISCLAIMER:** Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. Vocaloid belongs to Yamaha Corp. Anything else - well, you get the idea.

**Missing Pages**

"_You can't hide secrets, or repressed feelings, forever…"_

**Prologue: Breaking, Entering, and Burglary**

The darkest hour of night is midnight, as most would believe. Midnight is the witching hour, the hour when darkness rules the land, although some would say that the demons are most active at three in the morning. However, this midnight was not just dark, it was darker than dark. It was the new moon, Rosh Chodesh, the start of a new month in the Chinese and Jewish lunar calendars, and the midnight was dark as the depths of the deepest ocean dyed with the blackest of inks. Most of the townspeople lay sound asleep, for who would be awake at this time of the night? However, on this night, two ladies were up and about, seeking to do some mischief. Hooded to conceal their faces, one, who was a redhead, carried a lantern to light their way.

"Hurry up, Hisa, or we'll be spotted!" the redhead hissed at her companion, who was trailing behind her. "It's this blasted - damn, not again," the other one replied, trying to untangle her cloak from a thornbush. "Why did we _have_ to go through the forest, Teru? Why couldn't we just slip through the streets like _normal_ cat burglars? All the lights are out anyway. You know this forest is rumored to be cursed, don't you? It's right on the lower slopes of -" "Not another word, Hisa," Teru hissed, "or I'll pluck every magenta strand of hair from your head!" It was forbidden to speak the name of the hill on whose lower slopes the forest was. There were rumors that the other six hills surrounding the town were also cursed. "If we went through the streets, the night watchman would raise hell, dunderhead. Besides," she added, walking faster throught the forest, "the owner of our prize lives on the west side of town, at the foot of neighboring Mount Judgment. So quit your whining and _move_, dammit! We're almost there."

Eventually they reached their destination, a fine mansion, not too large, but quite clearly the home of a rich person. Conveniently, the back door, which directly faced Mount Judgement, was unlocked, and the pair made their way inside, searching for the object of their breaking and entering.

"It _should_ be behind a door with twelve handles," Teru whispered, moving through the shadows like a cat. "You mean like this one?" Hisa replied, standing in front of a massive bronze door with twelve handles, each carved in the shape of a different musical instrument. "Yes," Teru said, moving towards it, "like that one. I guess this door's locks are magical. How do you think we should get through, Hisa?" "I dunno," she replied. "Maybe we blast the door open?" "No," Teru said, "we need something more subtle. Ah, I see now." Her eyes darted around the vicinity, noticing that every carved instrument on the door had a real counterpart lying around. "I do believe we have to play the instruments to unlock this door. Such simplicity." "What if the owner wakes up because he hears us?" Hisa asked nervously. "It takes quite a while to play twelve instruments one after the other, right?" "_No hay problema_," Teru said, using Spanish for the heck of confusing Hisa, "a simple spell should make things easier." A turquoise magic circle appeared around her outstretched hand, as the twelve instruments rose into the air and played a few bars of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

"That's cheating, Teru," Hisa grumbled, as the locks clicked open simultaneously. "I didn't expect you to use your _Kinesis_ spell." Teru stopped the spell, and the instruments fell back to their original places. "Hisa, deary," she said, stepping through the door, "you need to learn to _think outside the box_." The room that they entered was large, the ceiling at least two stories from the floor. Glass display cases like those in museums were everywhere, some reinforced with rune barriers because their contents were dangerously powerful. "Teru," Hisa whispered excitedly while pointing at a glass case holding a black and silver pipe, "look over there! Is that what I think it is?" "Not our goal, Hisa," Teru replied, walking directly towards the center of the room, "although yes, our victim seems to have somehow obtained the Piper's Pipe, or at least created a fine copy of it."

The pair stopped at the glass case in the very center of the room. It had no rune barrier, but it was made of very hard glass. Inside were five pages of sheet music. This was what they had come for. This was what they braved the forest for. "This is gonna be easier than shooting fish in a barrel," Teru laughed mockingly. "The owner doesn't have much security, does he?" "He's a respected man in the town," Hisa replied. "He trusts everyone and everyone trusts him." "Pity," Teru answered. "Looks like he's gonna lose something. Hisa, do me the honors please." Hisa's magic seal, chartreuse in color, appeared on the glass case. "_Deconstruction,_" Hisa whispered, and the glass case fell apart into five panels. "I thought it was _Disassembly_," Teru muttered, daintily swiping the pages. "Oh no, Disassembly splits its target into many smaller versions of itself," Hisa replied. "Deconstruction splits it into its parts. Besides, you didn't honestly think I'd be as strong as, um, that old guy from that crazy mages' guild? Y'know, the one who destroys everything he touches?" "Hisa," Teru replied, grinning like a Cheshire cat while holding the sheet music, "let's get out of here, before the owner sees us." "Agreed," replied Hisa. Her magic seal reappeared over the glass panels. "_Reconstruction._" The glass panels reformed the case, and the two cat burglars snuck out of the room, taking care to lock it after they had gotten out.

Once they had gotten out of the mansion, they immediately hooded themselves and retreated into the shadows, skirting round the mansion by heading to Mount Gift in the south. The problem was that where Mount XXXXXXX had a dense dark forest, Mount Judgment had a load of rocky topography and almost as much mud.

"#*c%!" Hisa swore, one foot in some rather deep mud. "It's like it's sucking my foot in! Argh! Remind me again why we had to steal the music score in your hand?" "Because," Teru said, a vein close to popping out as she attempted to unstick Hisa's trapped foot, "these five pages contain music that is said to have the power to cause mass havoc and mayhem! With these we can plunge all of Fiore into chaos! Ohohoho! All will bow before me!" "Teru," Hisa said, now with her foot out of the mud, "you're doing it again." "What?" Teru asked. "Your delusions of grandeur are taking over again..." Hisa muttered. After this they said nothing but continued towards Mount Gift without another word.

When they had reached Mount Gift's southernmost slopes, farthest from the mansion, they immediately ran northward towards the town, and just in time too. The sky was lightening now, its dark hue now the deep indigo of pre-dawn. The pair made their way silently towards their house on the east side of town, taking care to avoid being seen by the watchman. They must have taken side streets at least ten times before they got home; such was the persistence of the watchman who patroled the streets of the town.

Once they got home, they immediately retreated to their innermost Sanctum Sanctorum, where Teru then concealed their pilfered prize inside an upright piano. "Teru, I'm wondering right now," Hisa said, yawning. "Shouldn't we test our - you-know-what - on someone first?" "Not to worry, Hisa," Teru said, sleep overtaking her. "I've got a plan."

Later that morning Ilya Yankovich, the mansion owner, entered the Room of Dangerous Items... and saw a glass case with no pages inside it. "_KHUI!_" he swore. "I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN there were some intruders last night," he growled, "what with the whispering and the hissing and the _music_...I thought I was dreaming, but no! They have made off with those highly dangerous pages...ah no matter. In the wrong hands those pages will be the death of Fiore...I must get them back at all cost, and punish those _blyadyi_ dearly...bunch of _pizda_..." "Sir?" asked the butler, Yakov. "You were saying something?" "I wish to send a job request," Ilya said heavily, turning to face the butler. "Five missing pages of dangerous sheet music. The reward is fifty thousand jewels for each page recovered." "Right away sir," Yakov said, bowing. "And which guild shall I send it to?" "The one which is most likely to recover those pages," replied Ilya. "The strongest guild you can think of." "Right away sir," repeated Yakov, and he scurried off to write up the request. "Send it..." whispered the desperate rich man, as he gazed upon the black and silver pipe he had crafted, "...to Fairy Tail."

One and a half weeks later, Natsu Dragneel unexpectedly left Magnolia town at dawn. The following job notice caught his eye: _Help Wanted (Mages Only): Willing Participants for a Medical Study on the Effects of Music on the Mind of a Mage. Reward: ten thousand jewels and the location of five disappeared dragons. Visit us in XXXXXXX Town (search for Teru and Hisa)._

**~*OWARI*~**

**A/N: **Well? I hope it wasn't too bad for a comeback...OTL. Anyway, just a random fact, Ilya's swearwords are genuine Russian mat' (profanity): Blyadyi (loose women, if you get my drift), Khui (male organ, the worst swear in Russian), and Pizda (female organ). Oh, and...yeah. My villainous OCs. Where do I begin...*facepalm* Anyways, Teru's magic (one of two) is Kinesis, which lets her manipulate inanimate objects at a distance of at most sixty feet. Useful for using the remote when you don't know where it is. Hisa's are Deconstruction and its inverse Reconstruction, which, like she said, lets her take stuff apart and put it back together (which may or may not suck depending on what you think). Deeper explanations for these and other unexplained stuff may come in later chapters. This is Silver Uranium, signing off.

**P.S.** Don't forget to leave any comments, corrections, violent (or otherwise) reactions, etc. In short, leave me some reviews please! First three to review will have _three reviews from me in their stories_! (lol what am I doing, this is incentive...mwahahaha...)


	2. I Ill Omens

**A/N:** Alright, it's me again, Silver Uranium. Ah, it's been three months since I last put something up on FF dot net, and in all that time I've been busy (with mountains and mountains of schoolwork). Anyway, I've got a new chapter up now, so there. I'm still alive. Now I must give you fair warning, since as this story progresses there will be certain things which may not be to your liking. So I say to you, _Turn back while you still can_.

_Lasciate ogne ragione, voi ch'intrate._

That being done with, I would like to extend many thanks in a dozen languages to Phil-0, couch potato, and Marshmallow Ninja, the only people so far to have reviewed this story. 謝謝! 多謝! ありがとう! Grazie! Gracias! Merci! Gratias tibi! Salamat po! תודה! Danke! Ευχαριστώ! شكرا! Banzai to you, Phil-0-san, couch potato-chan, and Marshmallow Ninja-san!

**Warning:** This chapter contains trespassing, perverts, card-reading, ill omens, and the like. _Lasciate ogne ragione, voi ch'intrate._

**DISCLAIMER: **Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima-sama. Vocaloid belongs to Yamaha Corp.

*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α

**Missing Pages**

_"You can't hide secrets - and repressed emotions - forever..."_

**Chapter 1: Ill Omens**

It was yet another day like any other in Magnolia, and a certain blond lady was thoroughly worn out. Yes indeed, Lucy Heartfilia, resident blond beauty of Fairy Tail, had been so busy throughout the day, what with the groceries and thinking up ways to pay for rent and looking for jobs to pay off said rent and the novel-in-progress-that-only-Levy-gets-to-read-first, that she was, for want of flashier words, _pooped_. Which was why she was looking forward to reaching her apartment.

"Aaahhh, finally some rest," she said as she walked into her apartment - only to find a certain dark-haired guy wearing only black boxers lying in her bed. "Hey Lucy, what's up?" Gray Fullbuster said, as if it was perfectly alright for him to be there in _her apartment_ almost totally nude. Which, though almost a regular occurrence, was still _wrong_.

"_TRESPASSING PERVERT!_" Lucy yelled, slamming her foot down on Gray's face with great force. "Do you have _ANY_ idea how _RUDE_ it is to be _NAKED_ in somebody else's _HOUSE?_"

"All right, first of all," Gray said, rubbing his sore cheek, "I was already like this when I got here-" ("That's not an excuse..." Lucy grumbled) "...and second, I just came here to escape the noise of the guild. Although it _is_ less noisy than usual nowadays, what with that flamehead suddenly leaving for no apparent reason...but I still have that ame-onna to worry about-"

"Wait," Lucy said suddenly, shutting Gray's mouth and cutting off his long rant. "Natsu went somewhere? Without even telling us?"

"Sure looks like it," Gray said, staring out the window at the orange sky. "He left a note, saying it was something personal. Although now that I remember, there was a request on the request board for test subjects for some experiment or something like that. The reward included the location of five of the disappeared dragons. That idiot flamehead..." Gray trailed off, staring into the distance.

_Something tells me that request is a trap_, Lucy thought worriedly, fear and panic building up inside her. _A trap to lure Dragon Slayers like Natsu. What if he doesn't come back? What if he comes back, but completely different?_ _Wait_, she thought, trying to calm down, _this is so unlike me. Why should I be worrying about Natsu? He's the legendary Salamander, I'm sure he'll be fine. But still..._

For a while, neither Lucy nor Gray spoke. Then Gray broke the silence. "Hey Lucy," he said, "can I read your novel?"

"Gray," Lucy said, a vein throbbing on her temple, "for the five hundred twenty-fourth time, you will not be the first person read my novel. That honor is for Levy... And for decency's sake _will you put some clothes on_?"

"_GAH! This always happens!_"

None of them knew the madness that was to come. Meanwhile in the guild, Cana Alberona was fortunetelling just for the heck of it. Unfortunately, one card that didn't have a good meaning kept appearing. "Again and again," she muttered, "no matter how I lay them out... What the heck is going on?" She decided to drown her worries in yet more liquor.

That card was XVI, the Tower, which usually signifies **calamity and disaster**.

**~*OWARI*~**

**A/N:** Okay, slightly worse than the previous chapter, I'll admit that. OTL. I blame excessively tight schedules in school for that. I don't get much time to write. Anyways...yeah, foreshadowing in the cards. The Tower card does indeed signify something negative most of the time, although the Death card would have been more dramatic. Then again, the Death card signifies the end of something and the start of another thing. The Tower can also mean sudden change, one of its less negative connotations. Forgive me if my grasp of Tarot is not very good. I'd appreciate it if you could clarify more on the matter. So, that's it, this is Silver Uranium, signing off.

**P.S.:** Do remember to review, please. I'll return the favor if you do. _Grazie e arrivederci!_


	3. II Beware of Counterfeit Researchers

**A/N:** Hello again, it's me, Silver Uranium, back from four months of writer's block and tight schedules. This chapter may be a wee bit...eccentric, but then again, that's my style - eccentric. Hence the warning.

_Lasciate ogne ragione, voi ch'intrate._

That being done with, I would like to extend many thanks in twelve languages to everyone who reviewed this story. 謝謝! 多謝! ありがとう! Grazie! Gracias! Merci! Gratias tibi! Salamat po! תודה! Danke! Ευχαριστώ! شكرا! Banzai to you, minna-san!

**Warning:** This chapter contains multiple Vocaloid references, suspicious resemblances to a certain country off mainland Asia, repetition of certain numbers, and the like. _Lasciate __ogne __ragione, __voi __ch__'__intrate._

**DISCLAIMER:**Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima-sama. Vocaloid belongs to Yamaha Corp.

*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α*AgU~α

**Missing Pages**

"_You can't hide secrets – and repressed emotions – forever…."_

**Chapter 2: Beware of Counterfeit Researchers**

Now Natsu had arrived in a remote town called Nicosa. It was, though of course he did not know it, the town where the theft of sheet music had occured about two weeks before. Nicosa was a week's journey from Magnolia, and even then, it was hard to find, since it was surrounded by seven hills. Natsu had gotten lost in the nearby hills several times, until he found one of the seven barely visible roads that led into the town. It was a rather self-sufficient town, as much of the town's needs were met by the natural bounty of the surrounding hills (these are named clockwise from the northernmost hill) - Mounts Follia, Malecibo, Korē (pronounced like the name Cory), Rapheío, Gift, Judgment, and the Hill-That-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Mount Follia was covered in flowers, both cultivated and wild. Mount Malecibo was known as the Seeded Hill because of the grain and fruit that grew (and was grown) there. Mount Korē had an abundance of minerals and ore, and the town's own little mine was located there. Mount Rapheío was once a volcano, but now only a spring that served as the town's water supply was left as a sign of its former activity. Mount Gift was rather quaint, its grassy slopes rippling in the nearly constant wind coming from the south. Mount Judgment, as was said previously, was very earthy, with great deposits of mud and clay that were used for making jars and other earthenware. Finally, the Hill-That-Must-Not-Be-Named was heavily forested, with the outskirts of the forest being used for the lumber supply. Of course, to avoid exhausting what nature could give them, Nicosa did not rely entirely on its hills and occasionally sent a little caravan along the major trade routes for goods.

Despite its seeming prosperity, Nicosa was very hard to spot on maps of Fiore. This was due to its being ringed by hills, with only seven dirt roads leading into the town. It was rumored that Nicosa did not want to be noticed by dark guilds seeking to plunder and pillage and extort, and that was why the town opted to stay secluded and virtually unknown.

Now when Natsu arrived in Nicosa, he noticed the people there were very friendly. Outright strangers would stop to greet him, and innkeepers jostled to accomodate him. "What's up with these guys?" he asked Happy, after what seemed to be the fifty-fourth person to greet him went away.

"I don't know," replied Happy. "But look there! They're putting up streamers and lanterns in the town square! What d'you think is going on?"

"I don't know," said Natsu. "Maybe we ought to have a look." It turned out to be preparations for one of the town's many festivals. This particular festival was held in honor of important visitors to the town - in this case, Natsu.

"Welcome, welcome!" exclaimed a short man about half a head taller than Makarov. He wore an orange suit and a monocle that made his left eye look twice as large. "I am Simeon, the mayor of this town. It is an honor to have you here in Nicosa." He shook hands with Natsu.

"How'd you know we were coming?" Natsu asked, slightly confused.

"Ah, I was wondering if you'd ask that," Simeon said. "Most first-time visitors here do." He gestured towards the hills. "Nicosa is surrounded by a large magical 'net', so to speak. Atop each hill is a very powerful magical item. Don't ask me what they are...even I don't know. Anyway, these seven artifacts create a network of magic that can detect the people who enter within its boundaries. When someone does cross the outermost magical lines, the reflecting pool right over there, in the center of the town square reveals an image of that person. Got it?"

"Nope," replied Natsu bluntly. And then as his stomach grumbled loudly, he realized something... "Oh man, when do we get to eat? Im starving!"

"Ah," Simeon said, "about that... I do hope you can bear it just until tonight. Tonight, there will be a great feast in your honor, with mountains and mountains of mouthwatering delicacies. By the end of the night, I very much doubt that you will be hungry again within the next three days!"

"Stop it," moaned Natsu as his stomach grumbled again. "You're making it worse..."

Meanwhile, Happy had been staring at the reflecting pool, due to something intriguing. In contrast to the gray pavement, a ring of blue cobblestones ran completely around the reflecting pool. This ring was carved with an unusual curling sort of design. At first Happy thought it was just decorative, but the designs seemed to resemble some sort of _script_. Even odder, the carvings seemed to be glowing, emitting a faint golden light. Then Natsu's voice drove all else from his mind.

"Come on Happy, let's go," Natsu said. "Aye!" Happy replied. Of course, Natsu took some of the time to see if any of the locals had seen any sign of Igneel, but no such luck.

Natsu had just finished checking into one of the town inns (at the insistence of the town's many innkeepers, who fought to drive their prices as low as possible until one of them explicitly said Natsu could stay at his inn FREE OF CHARGE) when a girl with startlingly red hair bumped into him. "Ow!" Natsu said, and then fell silent. "E-e-erza? What are you doing here?"

The young lady looked at him, eyes as harsh as Erza's. She was wearing a magenta jacket that clashed horribly with her hair, as well as some rather questionable black pants.

"Excuse me?" she said irritatedly. "I'm no _Erza_, punk. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go look for a mage who responded to my job request."

She glanced at his left shoulder. "Oops," she said, "my bad. You _did_ come here for the job request right? _Effect of music_, _et cetera et cetera_, reward is locations of dragons... that request?"

Natsu just stared at her dumbfoundedly. "Um," he said, "who are you?"

The redhead looked at him distastefully. "Tch," she said, "dense aren't you? I'll just assume you're the one who responded to my job request then. I'm Teru, a researcher concerned with music. Now if you'll excuse me again-" she handed him a turquoise slip of paper "-_that_ is my address. Meet me there tonight, four hours after sundown. The feast starts at sundown, so you should have lots of time to prepare, right? Right." Teru left promptly after that, without saying another word.

"Natsuuuuuuuu!" Happy came flying toward him, fish in mouth from the inn's kitchens. "Who was that scary lady? She seemed a bit like Erza."

"Eh, who knows?" Natsu said, not exactly focused, staring at the slip of paper. "Who knows, Happy?"

Written on the slip of paper were the following words: _524 Primosonno Street_.

**~*OWARI*~**

**A/N: **Hello everyone, long time no see. I have here the results of being absent for a third of a year, dagnabbit, from FF dot Net. Now I know how Persephone feels having to spend four months in the Underworld. So please forgive me if my writing skills have become worse since the last chapter. Which reminds me, if you read this chapter carefully, you'll see blatant Vocaloid references scattered at random. If you tell what those references are in your review, don't tell exactly where in this chapter they are. Leave it to the other readers to find them. This is Silver Uranium, signing off.

**P.S.:** Do remember to review, please. I'll return the favor if you do. _Grazie e arrivederci!_


End file.
